Syracuse, N.Y. -- His real name is Antonio. Antonio Stephen Jardine. But he goes by Scoop, and maybe he’s been so tagged because of times similar to the one he experienced in front of his Carrier Dome cubicle on Tuesday evening when he provided . . . well, a scoop.

Only minutes earlier, Jim Boeheim had declared that Jardine, Syracuse University’s junior guard, had been the singular reason why the Orange had been able to sidestep the pesky Detroit Titans 66-55 beneath our town's big bubble.

But when apprised of that, when told that his boss had offered the highest of praise, Jardine offered two words.

"Um," he said, "no."

It hadn’t been his intent, Scoop announced, to pick up the struggling SU club and lug it to a third consecutive win in this campaign that is three contests old. Nah, there had been nothing quite so dramatic in his thinking.

"Whatever our team needs this year -- if that’s me playing defense, if that’s me getting 20 assists or trying to get 20 rebounds -- I’m going to put myself out there to do it," Jardine offered. "Today, it was scoring. I made some plays for me and my teammates. And the ball went in the basket. The ball just went in for me today. There are going to be games when the ball won’t go in for me."

As he spoke, Scoop all but shrugged in a been-there/done-that sort of way. But the truth of the matter is that the young man had just strung together the finest line of his college career: 27 points . . . eight assists . . . five steals . . . two rebounds . . . and a block. And Boeheim, who insisted that "we’ve got no chance to win" if not for Jardine’s performance, was grateful.

Peeved, but grateful.

You see, the Orange didn’t shoot so well before a rainy-night crowd of 17,379 that groaned now and then as the SU outfit clanged and doinked and shanked its way to 42 missed shots in 66 heaves. And Jim, who was just hours shy of his 66th birthday, seemed to remember having received nicer presents on other occasions.

"I think guys that are pretty good shooters on our team have gotta be able to go out there WHEN NOBODY’S GUARDING YOU and make an open shot," Boeheim stated. "If someone was guarding one of these guys, you know, I might have some kind of understanding.

"You’re in college. You’ve got a scholarship. They don’t guard you. You’ve got to be able to make that shot. If you can’t, you shouldn’t be in college, playing basketball. That’s why guys don’t play."

Do you get the drift here? That wasn’t Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy" being presented inside the Dome. In fact, the music made by the Orange, specifically in the first half, sounded more like something from a neighborhood polka band. But though Boeheim was reluctant (which is his right), perhaps this off-key squad should be allowed a bit of slack.

There are, after all, four mostly-confused freshmen in the mix right now. There are two rusty sophomores who didn’t get on the floor much last season. There’s another sophomore, two juniors and one (1) senior. And while Boeheim insisted that it’s later that we all might think (again, his right), it is Nov. 17. Not Dec. 17. Not Jan. 17. Not Feb. 17.

It is Nov. 17 and these people are going to get nothing but older and, presumably, wiser. Which means there is time to fix what needs fixing . . . and as this is Boeheim’s "most overrated" group in 35 years -- according, that is, to the big fella, himself -- there is much to repair.

But do you really believe that SU is going to make a habit of missing 15 of its first 17 three-pointers and nine of its first 18 free throws as it did during that grinding scrum with the Titans? And do you really think that Jardine’s 27 points and Rick Jackson’s 22 rebounds -- albeit, each a career high -- were anomalies?

If so, we might as well pull out the lacrosse sticks right now.

But then, Boeheim can embrace patience as if it were a thorn bush. And on Tuesday, that is precisely what he did.

"We had no chance to win because no one else wanted to shoot, or even took a shot like they wanted to take a shot," he said after his side did, actually, win. "I don’t mind if a guy takes a shot and shoots it and tries to make it. But when you start aiming it and can’t get it to the rim, then you’re not a college basketball player.

"We’ve got some guys who have to figure out whether they are or they aren’t real quick. Because we don’t have a lot of time."

The Orange does have Scoop, though. And Jackson, too. And it had both in full flower on Tuesday. As such, that prairie fire on top of Boeheim's birthday cake today will be so much easier to face.

(Bud Poliquin’s columns, his "To The Point" observations and his freshly-written on-line commentaries appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. His work also regularly appears on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. Additionally, he can be heard Mondays through Fridays (10 a.m.-12 noon), on the "Bud & the Manchild" sports-talk radio show on The Score 1260-AM. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)